Past Courses
Past Courses
SSP has offered courses since 2011. Explore our archive below.
The Art of Storytelling
This is a small, advanced seminar designed for students interested in comparing the formal constraints and opportunities of storytelling in different media. Students will examine the hallmarks of storytelling in different media and then adapt or create a story in two media.
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz.
Crafting Concept Records: Big Tales, Small Grooves, and the Art of Musical Narrative
In this hybrid workshop-seminar, students will explore musical narratives by analyzing seminal concept albums and then producing their own single-story album through written lyrics.
Instructor: Tiffany Naiman.
Finding Your Story
The storyteller Michael Meade says that we live two adventures in each life. The first involves securing our basic needs and making a place for ourselves in the world. The second is learning, deeply and continuously, who we are and what we stand for. This is a class for the second adventure.
Instructors: Fred Luskin, Jonah Willihnganz.
Love: Art, Science, and Practice
Designed as a chance to take a deep dive into the nature of love, the course looks at its history, how science and art help us understand it, and how wisdom traditions help us practice it.
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz. Fulfills WAYS-WR2, WAYS-CE.
Narrative Design
This class examines narrative design in performed storytelling, especially the oral storytelling on radio, and compares it to narrative design in other forms, such as print and the graphic novel.
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz.
Sound Stories
This seminar is designed for students interested in creating audio stories for radio, podcast, and other forms of sonic narrative. Students will examine the craft elements of the audio form, including skills for interviewing, scoring, and audio editing, and will then produce their own documentary, memoir, or investigative story.
Instructor: Laura Joyce Davis. Fulfills WAYS-WR2, WAYS-CE.
Tools for a Meaningful Life
In this gateway LifeWorks course, we will explore foundational human capacities—including courage, resilience and creativity—at the heart of a meaningful life.
Instructors: Jonah Willihnganz, Andrew Todhunter, and Fred Luskin.
The Art of the Essay
In this course you will learn everything you need to know to develop your experiences and insights into publishable pieces that entertain, challenge, and enlighten your audience.
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz.
Documentary Fictions
In this course students will examine the research methods, artistic craft, and ethics of these rich, genre-bending works and then create documentary fictions of their own.
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz.
Holistic College Student Development: Theory and Practices
This course explores and develops practices to support holistic, college student development. We will examine classic cognitive theories of intellectual and ethical development, moral development and reasoning, psychosocial development, and racial, ethnic, and religious identity development.
Instructors: anthony antonio, Jonah Willihnganz, Tiffany Steinwert
Meeting the Moment: Inner Resources for Hard Times
In this experiential, project-oriented class: Explore practices to find true ground and enact positive change for self and community; Cultivate natural capacities of presence, courage, and compassion.
Instructors: Jonah Willihnganz, Colleen Preuninger, Marissa Floro. Fulfills WAY-CE.
Oral Documentary Workshop
This workshop will lead students through the process of turning interviews, archival tape, and other recorded material into an accomplished audio documentary suited for public radio and major podcasts.
Instructor: Laura Joyce Davis.
Stories to Save Our Planet
The United Nations have called climate change the challenge of our generation. In this course, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to that conversation by creating a podcast episode about a specific climate change solution.
Instructor: Laura Joyce Davis. Fulfills WAYS-WR2, WAYS-CE.
Your American Life
This special seminar is designed for students interested in creating stories for radio, podcast, and other sound media.
Instructors: Jake Warga, Jonah Willihnganz.
Counterstory in Literature & Education
In this seminar, we will explore and apply Counterstory methodology to educational and other common cultural narratives. Students will study a variety of Counterstories, examine the theory and craft behind them, and create an original Counterstory.
Instructors: anthony antonio, Jonah Willihnganz.
Fight the Future: Speculative Fiction and Social Justice
Imagining the future has been one of the most important ways humans have assessed their present. In this salon-style seminar we'll focus on modern speculative fiction as social critique, especially of regimes of patriarchy, racism, and capitalism.
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz, Shannon Pufahl. Fulfills WAY-A-II.
Introduction to Podcast Storytelling
This introductory course is designed to teach you the fundamentals of creating narrative podcast episodes. You will learn by doing, working with a small group to produce a 5-10 minute audio story.
Instructor: Laura Joyce Davis. Fulfills WAY-CE.
The Mythic Life: The Oral Tradition of Myth, Folklore, and Fairy Tale
This course offers an in-depth study and experience of myth and folklore, the roots of modern story and the roots of our own stories.
Instructor: Martin Shaw.
Reading as a Writer
In this special creative writing seminar, you will learn to read in a way you were probably never taught in literature classes—not as a reverent admirer but as a craftsperson, an apprentice in the guild.
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz.
StoryCraft
StoryCraft is a hands-on, experiential workshop offering participants the opportunity, structure and guidance to craft compelling personal stories to be shared in front of a live audience.
Instructors: Dan Klein, Michelle Darby.