eldritchhobbit

My half-hour talk "Star Wars and Resistance" is now on YouTube as part of the SPACE Showcase. My talk kicks in around 11 minutes into the Showcase.

This talk is a "sneak peek" into my new three-part online module for SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) for Signum University in Spring 2026.

Watch on YouTube

Rebellions Are Built On Hope: A Star Wars Series

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 of resistance, resilience, and rebellion built on a deep engagement with history, philosophy, and political thought. Join Dr. Amy H. Sturgis as we consider how Star Wars wrestles with big ideas, invites conversation and action, and inspires hope in unprecedented times.

This SPACE series consists of three hybrid modules:

Module 1 (Feb. 2026) covers the series Andor, Season 1 (more info here);

Module 2 (March 2026) covers the series Andor, Season 2 (more info here); and

Module 3 (April 2026) covers the films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (more info here).

I'm delighted to share that I will be teaching a new three-part online module for SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) for Signum University in Spring 2026.

Module 1 (Feb. 2026) covers the series Andor, Season 1 (more info here);

Module 2 (March 2026) covers the series Andor, Season 2 (more info here); and

Module 3 (April 2026) covers the films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (more info here).

Watch on YouTube

You're invited to join me in SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University to talk about all five books in The Hunger Games series! The first module has been confirmed to run in September 2025.

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.

Here is more information.

Watch on YouTube

I’m excited to say that in Fall 2025 I will be offering the 12-week online class “Exploring Star Trek” for M.A. students and non-degree-seeking auditors alike at Signum University. I’m delighted to be teaching this course once again!

Here is more information.

My "Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson: Exploring a Gothic Campus Mystery" one-month module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently "on the launchpad" for potential launch in the autumn of 2025.

Here is the official description:

"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 attention and critical appreciation from fans and scholars alike.

"Far ahead of its time when it was published, Jackson’s deeply personal Hangsaman is many things: a psychological study of a young woman’s coming of age; a haunting Gothic mystery; a pointed critique of gender roles, family dynamics, and higher education; a meditation on trauma and mental illness; and an ancestor of today’s dark academia storytelling. Shirley Jackson drew inspiration from a variety of sources to craft this remarkable campus novel, from folk ballads and the Tarot, myth and ritual, to a real college campus and an unsolved New England cold case of a missing sophomore student.

"In this module, we will unpack this gem of a Gothic story, following freshman Natalie Waite as she searches for her 'essential self' and discussing why Hangsaman feels freshly relevant and important to many readers today."

Here is more information on the Hangsaman module.

To help launch this module, please go here, log in, and put this module on your launchpad short-list. Thanks!

My "The Hunger Games" module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently a candidate for September 2025. This is a proposed first module of five, one for each of the five Hunger Games novels by Suzanne Collins. Each week will include one recorded lecture and one live discussion section. Voting runs through August 1. I hope you will join us as we explore the lessons we may learn from Panem.

May the odds be ever in our favor!

More information is here.

My 12-week graduate course on the Dystopian Tradition will be offered this summer online at Signum University. I'm so glad that this class made; these works, and the conversations they make possible, are more important and relevant than ever.

Pictured is a stack of books including George Orwell's 1984, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, Sheri Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, M.T. Anderson's Feed, Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth's The Space Merchants, Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, and Mordecai Roshwald's Level 7.

My graduate course on the Dystopian Tradition will be offered again this summer online at Signum University if there's sufficient interest. I hope the class will make, because it seems more relevant than ever.

I'm delighted to say that it's back! My month-long module "Meet The Last Man" module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently up for candidacy for June 2025. Voting is open through May 1.

Mary Shelley's novel The Last Man is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I'm really looking forward to exploring it with students!

Here is more information.

Watch on YouTube

Starting next week (April 2024), I will be offering the month-long module "Meet The Last Man" with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University.

Mary Shelley's novel The Last Man is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I'm really looking forward to exploring it with students!

Here is more information.

Watch on YouTube

Congratulations to Laurel M. Stevens! It’s been a joy to be Laurel’s M.A. thesis director. Here is the Thesis Theater: Laurel Stevens, "An Awareness of Debts: Dark Academia and its Source-Texts."

Watch on YouTube

I've taught at Signum University for years, but in addition to offering my classes, I'm now also joining Signum's SPACE Program (Signum Adult Portals for Adult Continuing Education).

I have modules up for candidacy now that I am very excited about! Each will be one month long, with two one-hour meetings per week (one an interactive lecture by me and one a group discussion facilitated by me). All meetings are online. Everyone's invited!

Here's the schedule:

January 2024: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

February 2024: A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (the first work officially authorized by Shirley Jackson's estate to respond to The Haunting of Hill House)

March 2024: The Last Man by Mary Shelley (a science fiction classic, and the most relevant novel one can read while living in "unprecedented times")

Everyone is invited! For more information, please check out this link: Amy H. Sturgis, Upcoming SPACE Modules

Watch on YouTube

I’m happy to say that my “Teaching Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman (1951)” post, based on my experience of teaching Shirley Jackson in my graduate Dark Academia course in Fall 2022, is now online at Reading Shirley Jackson in the 21st Century:

Teaching Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman (1951) by Amy H. Sturgis

I'm delighted to share the details of my Fall 2022 Academia online class at Signum University!

You can see the course page here with updated reading and scheduling information.

I'm also thrilled to add that 3 of the brilliant authors whose works we'll be studying in the Dark Academia course will be holding live Q&A sessions with the class!

Peadar Ó Guilín for THE CALL ('16)

Elisabeth Thomas for CATHERINE HOUSE ('20)

R.F. Kuang for BABEL ('22)

I’m excited to share more information about my Fall 2022 Signum University online class. The course page is coming soon. I’ll be posting links and details!

I’m excited to say that in Summer 2021, I will boldly go where no Signum University prof has gone before!

I will be offering the 12-week online class “Exploring Star Trek” for M.A. students and non-degree-seeking auditors alike. I’m delighted at this opportunity!

I’m pleased to announce that we will have a very special guest at one meeting of the “Exploring Star Trek” Signum University class in Summer 2021: New York Times bestselling author Una McCormack! What a delight this will be!

The catalog page for the “Exploring Star Trek” class is now available. Here is the link!

"Exploring Star Trek"

This Spring I'll be teaching my "The Force of Star Wars" course online (in both undergraduate and graduate-level versions) at my current home, Lenoir-Rhyne University, and my old stomping grounds, Belmont University. The class sizes are limited, and now that pre-registration has begun, I'm tickled to say that interest appears to be high. There are waiting lists to get into sections at both campuses. The Force does indeed seem to be awakening! ;)

Following conversations with my fantastic Star Wars students this semester, I've been going back through some of the literature to find some favorite Qui-Gon Jinn-related quotes (above and beyond these that I posted earlier).

( Quotes are below the cut. )

Current Music: "Duel of the Fates," The Phantom Menace Score

Registration is open for my Fall 2015 online course The Force of Star Wars: Examining the Epic!

Here's the course description:

As anyone who has ever staged a mock lightsaber duel or made an imaginary jump to lightspeed knows, Star Wars is a shared language that unites multiple generations across the planet. What traditions and ideas inspired that galaxy a long time ago and far, far away? How has the Star Wars universe expanded and evolved since its debut in 1977? What can we expect from its future incarnations? Join award-winning scholar Dr. Amy H. Sturgis as she examines the fabric of the Star Wars story and its participatory fan culture to discover the lasting meaning behind the epic and appreciate its unprecedented impact on film, fiction, and popular culture.

Don’t move along. This is the class you’re looking for.

Please visit mythgard.org/starwars for more details, including a week-by-week breakdown of the course topics and information on our very special guest speaker. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Here is the course trailer.

Current Music: "The Saga Begins," Weird Al

Happy Star Wars Day!

Today seems like the perfect opportunity to announce that it's official: my Fall 2015 online course for Mythgard Institute will be "The Force of Star Wars: Examining the Epic." I'm very excited!

“Evacuate in our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances.”
- Grand Moff Tarkin, Star Wars: A New Hope

Watch on YouTube

Current Music: "Yub Nub," Forbidden Soul Doughnut

Profile

eldritchhobbit

My Official Website

Navigation

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Style: Night Sea for Tranquility III by branchandroot

Entries tagged with teaching

Star Wars and Resistance

Rebellions Are Built on Hope

It's almost time for The Hunger Games!

"Exploring Star Trek" in Fall 2025

I hope you'll join me in Panem (starting in September 2025)!

Help launch Hangsaman!

Will you join me in Panem?

The Dystopian Tradition will run in Summer 2025!

The Dystopian Tradition

Meet the Last Man (now in 2025)!

Meet The Last Man!

Thesis Theater

I hope to see you in SPACE!

Teaching Shirley Jackson's Hangsaman (Dark Academia)

Fall 2022 Dark Academia Course

Dark Academia

Coming Summer 2021: "Exploring Star Trek"

Quotes re: Qui-Gon Jinn

The Force of Star Wars: Examining the Epic

May the 4th be with you!

Profile

Links

Navigation

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Tags