Intersession & Spring 2025 Courses
Introducing our January Intersession and Spring semester course offerings! Check out the full line-up of courses below.
Early registration opens November 4.
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.
Use code “TrySKSM” to waive the Special Student enrollment fee.
Intersession: January 6 – 31
- An Introduction to Climate Change Chaplaincy
- Possibilities and Pitfalls: Practical Arts In Ministry
- Spiritual Counseling in Addiction & Recovery
Spring Semester
- Advanced Critical Theories
- Advanced Topics in Religious Education and Faith Formation
- Christian Histories
- ECO Core
- Ecowomanism: Mother Earth, Women Bodies, and Soul Care
- Learning to Teach: Developing an ECO Pedagogy
- Multi-Religious Dialogue
- Power, Organizations, and Movements
- Psychedelic Ministry Methods
- Religion and Music (New! Just added!)
- Spiritual Practices in These Times
- Theories and Practices of Justice
- Transformative Conflict Praxis
- UU Prophetic Witness
- UU Theologies
Scroll down to learn more about each course!
Intersession
An Introduction to Climate Change Chaplaincy
Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner
Monday-Friday | January 27-31
In this combined synchronous and asynchronous online intensive, students will learn about the mental, emotional, and spiritual impacts of climate change; develop an understanding of climate emotions, particularly climate grief and anxiety; reflect on how climate change is transforming the chaplain’s role and response; and begin thinking about how to provide culturally competent climate pastoral care that is a reflection of their identities and capacities. Learn more!
Possibilities and Pitfalls: Practical Arts In Ministry
Rev. Dr. Tera Landers
Monday-Friday | January 6-17 | 4:00-5:30 pm PT
In this online synchronous class, we will consider the possibilities and pitfalls in these tasks of ministry: governance versus ministry, stewardship and fundraising, creating and managing budgets, supervising and collaborating with staff, nurturing strong community partnerships, program planning and evaluation, and campus safety and security practices. Learn more!
Spiritual Counseling in Addiction & Recovery
Dr. Elijah Eckert-Smith
Monday-Friday | January 6-10
This week-long synchronous online intensive will approach the subject of spiritual counseling in addiction and how to apply different modalities to individuals suffering from substance abuse or addictive disorders. Student will discuss different philosophical approaches and principles that align with addiction treatment, including: holistic vs. 12-step model, discussing grief and loss, exploring identity through personality test application, implementing ritual and ceremony, and seeking purpose and meaning. The goal is to educate and enhance the application of current ideals to the consistently saturated substance-abuse treatment field. Learn more!
Spring
Advanced Critical Theories
Dr. Hugo Córdova Quero
Tuesdays | Time TBD
This hybrid interdisciplinary course is designed to equip students with a comprehensive suite of analytical tools, enabling them to navigate and comprehend the diverse realities elucidated by critical theories. It extensively explores multifaceted dimensions, including identity, gender, race/ethnicity, class, intersectionality, and the nuanced construction of meaning within the realm of faith. Learn more!
Advanced Topics in Religious Education and Faith Formation
Rev. Dr. Sheri Prud’homme
Thursdays | 9:40 am-12:30 pm PT
This seminar style course will be developed in collaboration with the research interests and ministry goals of the participants. Possible topics include but are not limited to multigenerational worship and congregation-wide learning, dismantling white supremacy and positive racial identity formation in multicultural congregations, alternatives to Sunday School, safer congregation policies and practices, using technology and virtual/distance methods in religious education and faith development programs. Learn more!
Christian Histories
Rev. Dr. Chris Schelin
Asynchronous Online
This course will provide a historical survey of Christianity from the close of the New Testament period to the present with the goals of identifying diverse theological convictions and spiritual practices, attending to underrepresented and “heretical” perspectives, and analyzing the role of Christian faith(s) in justifying oppression or seeking liberation. Learn more!
ECO Core
Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini
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!
Ecowomanism: Mother Earth, Women Bodies, and Soul Care
Rev. Keyona Lazenby
Thursdays | 2:10-5:00 pm PT
This synchronous online course (open to all interested students) introduces ecowomanism, the study of theology, spirituality, and ethics that centers the Black woman’s lived experience globally. An exploration of emerging themes and issues in environmental justice, focusing on those intersecting with race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, class, culture, religious expression, Mother Earth, and non-human species. Learn more!
Learning to Teach: Developing an ECO Pedagogy
J. Tyson Casey
Thursdays | 2:10-5:00 pm PT
This seminar style three-credit course will provide students with a facilitated space to engage various approaches to and modalities for educating to counter oppression and create just and sustainable communities (ECO) in a multireligious, spiritually grounded context. Different SKSM faculty offer synchronous and/or asynchronous weekly lessons and experiences that demonstrate the school’s educational philosophy in action, within an integrated curricular container. 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!
Psychedelic Ministry Methods
Rev. Dr. Pamela Hancock
Every Other Thursday | 9:40 am-12:30 pm PT
This course will focus on the entrepreneurship of our students and the development of new ministerial methods that are firmly rooted in their own spiritual/religious identity, personal practices that mentally/emotionally/spiritually sustain them, the needs of the community(ies) they want to serve (especially when it comes to BIPOC needs), and the skill set needed to facilitate group or individual sessions. Learn more!
Religion and Music
Dr. Som Pourfarzaneh
Mondays | 2:10-3:00 pm PT
This synchronous online course will present an introduction to the intersections between religion and music, specifically through the academic lenses of anthropology and cultural production and with a focus on countering oppression in its various forms. It will serve as a container for student work on creating and disseminating music that helps to enrich the spiritual lives of their communities, while drawing on student experiences studying and making music to benefit our shared learning. Learn more!
Spiritual Practices in These Times
Dr. Pravina Rodrigues
Asynchronous Online
In this asynchronous online course, students will explore, develop and/or deepen their spiritual practice and support others in doing the same. The class will be experiential and multi-religious, drawing on some of the wisdom and practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Earth-based traditions, as well as neuroscience, poetry, and Ecopsychology. Learn more!
Theories and Practices of Justice
Rev. Dr. Megan Visser
Wednesdays | 9:00-10:30 am PT
This asynchronous course with optional weekly discussion sessions will interrogate our understanding of justice. What theories, paradigms, and practices are we considering, where do they come from, and what is their history? Who do they benefit? What other paradigms and experiences exist within our and other communities and contexts? How do they affect our ability to imagine, ritualize, and co-create a better world? How do they understand human beings in the context of the world and other beings? Learn more!
Transformative Conflict Praxis
Rev. Dr. Samantha Wilson
Mondays | 9:40 am-12:30 pm PT
This course integrates theology, theory, and practice from trauma-informed studies, liberation and community psychology, and restorative and transformative justice approaches to conflict engagement, harm, and healing in community systems. It invites participants to a rigorous personal engagement with what conflict transformation can mean for them. Learn more!
UU Prophetic Witness
Rev. Dr. Meg Richardson
Asynchronous Online
This asynchronous online course will explore the history of Unitarian Universalist Prophetic Witness since the Merger in 1961, as expressed in activism and voted on by the annual Unitarian Universalist General Assembly. It will combine historical investigation of social justice actions and witness with deep analysis of Unitarian Universalist polity and how congregations transform affirmation into action. Learn more!
UU Theologies
Rev. Colin Bossen
Asynchronous with Zoom Discussions
The purpose of this asynchonous 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!
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